


Believe, Hope, Pray

by Seito



Category: Young Justice, Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-10
Updated: 2012-07-10
Packaged: 2017-11-09 13:30:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/455980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Seito/pseuds/Seito
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everyday Wally believes, hopes and prays but it is all for naught. There is no magic in the world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Believe, Hope, Pray

_It goes like this_ _  
The fourth, the fifth  
The minor fall, the major lift_  
  
Every day Wally believes, hopes and prays.  
  
He is only seven years old and the world is so much bigger. His green eyes are bright and wide. The ladies in white always stop him and coo over how adorable he is. “You’re so small!” they tell him. “Do you need any help?”  
  
Wally shakes his head. He’s a big boy now. So he wiggles free from their pinching fingers and continues down the hall. He stretches on the tip of his toes for the doorknob that is always just out of reach.  
  
With a jump, he opens the door and slips inside. On the bed lays his mother. He hasn’t seen them in a while but he knows under those eyelids is a pair of bright green eyes like his and laugh lines just waiting to be used. She doesn’t greet him, but Wally doesn’t expect her to.  
  
Wally dusts the picture frame resting on the table next to the bed that shows a happy couple with two children. Then he pushes a large chair next to her bed and climbs up. Then with patience that should be beyond a six year old, he sits quietly. His hands fold together in his lap and Wally just sits and waits.  
  
If he thinks hard enough he can hear his mother’s words, reciting his favorite stories. She spun tales of heroes and magic. How the white knight saves the princess and they live happily ever after. How good triumphs over evil. How the weak become the strong if they believe just enough. How miracles happen.  
  
Wallace held truth to every world.  
  
The sun begins to set and Wally knows he has to get home before it gets dark. He leaps off the chair and pushes it back into the corner because his mother taught him to clean up after himself. He jumps to open the door and waves a goodbye to his mother. “Bye mom,” he whispers.  
  
The door shut close and Wally walks down the white hall, never hearing the flat drawn out beep or the people rushing in behind him.  
  
Every day Wally believes, hopes and prays but it is all for naught.  
  
\-------------  
  
_Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend_ _  
_Somewhere along in the bitterness_  
And I would have stayed up with you all night  
Had I known how to save a life_  
  
His new name is Wallace West and if he’s a little more bitter at the world, no one can blame him. Every day he believes, hopes and prays. There is magic in the world and he will fervently cling to the notion that his mother is right.  
  
It’s dark that night. Wally is ten years old and is enjoying the rare night out. Brad is the nicest babysitter Wally knows and once a month Brad will take him out, instead of just waiting at home for his parents to return. Tonight Brad takes him to see a movie: Harry the Wizard. It is just the kind of movie that Wally loves. There’s a meek fellow who learns he has magic. He sets off on adventure to save the world and at the end of the movie Wally worries that Ron, Harry’s best friend, is dead for good but a miracle happens and Ron is saved and Wally leaves the theater happy.  
  
“It was so awesome!” Wally babbles. His system is slightly wired by the small amounts of soda that Brad lets him have but end result doesn’t really matter since Wally is so energetic that even without the soda he would be this excited.  
  
Brad laughs and ruffles his hair. “C’mon kiddo,” he said. “Let’s get you home before your parents okay?”  
  
Wally nods and neither of them notices the bright lights racing towards them.  
  
\---  
  
There’s something wet dropping on Wally’s forehead and it causes him to wake up. “Hey kiddo,” Brad’s voice coaxes him into waking. Wally looks up with his bright green eyes and knows something isn’t right because Brad isn’t that red, can’t be that red.  
  
Hot tears welt up in his eyes and even though he doesn’t know what happened, Wally knows something has gone wrong, so horribly wrong. Wally believes, hopes and prays. Brad groans and rolls over, releasing Wally from his grip. It’s then that Wally finally gets to see. There’s red everywhere, so much that ground is turning a crimson color. Wally knows, _knows_ , that legs isn’t supposes to be bend that way. Scrambling over to Brad, Wally takes off his blue jacket and places it on Brad’s stomach who is clutching it in pain. They taught him last week in P.E. that if you get hurt you should put pressure on it to stop the bleeding.  
  
_Please, please, no. Not again._  
  
Wally can only believe, hope and pray.  
  
“Hey kiddo,” Brad rasps out. He ran a hand through Wally’s red hair. “Don’t cry. It’ll be alright.”  
  
“No, no, no, no,” Wally chants. He believes, hopes and prays with all of his heart because this can’t happen, not again. Not now.  
  
“Don’t cry,” Brad whispers. Then his eyes close and his breathing slows and Wally can only scream.  
  
“NOO! Brad! NO!” Wally shakes Brad’s body, trying to wake him up. He believes, hopes and prays. Wally needs that miracle, wants that miracle not for himself but for Brad because he can’t lose someone else again. Because Brad is nice, because Brad doesn’t deserve this, because Wally can’t lose someone like this _again._  
  
Someone pulls him away from Brad’s still body and Wally shrieks. “NOO! BRAD! BRAD! WAKE UP! WAKE UP!”  
  
Wally believes, hopes and prays. If Ron can wake up, Brad can too and if there ever a need for a miracle, it needs to happen now.  
  
But it doesn’t come.  
  
Wally watches in horror as they zip Brad’s body into a black bag. His face is streak with tears and Wally does the only thing he knows to do: believes, hopes and prays.  
  
At Brad’s funeral, Wally doesn’t shed a single tear because Brad told him not to cry.  
  
Since then, everyday Wally ~~believes,~~ hopes and prays  
  
\--------------------  
  
_Lights will guide you home_ _  
And ignite your bones  
And I will try to fix you_  
  
Uncle Barry is Wally’s new hero. There is plenty of different reasons as to why but Wally’s personal favorite is because Uncle Barry is The Flash. Every day Wally hopes and prays and knows even if miracles don’t happen, superheroes can still save the day. If Barry doesn’t know that Wally’s bright green eyes are actually a shade duller, it’s only because Barry didn’t know Wally before.  
  
It has been a year since Wally has become Kid Flash. Kid Flash is kinda a dorky name but that’s only because no one knows the meaning behind it. The kid comes from Brad’s kiddo nickname for him and the Flash is obvious because it’s Uncle Barry. There’s something about being a hero that provides Wally a rush like nothing ever before. Wally loves being a superhero. He loves putting the bad guys in jail and saving people.  
  
At the end of the day he goes home to two loving parents, an awesome uncle and aunt, plenty of friends and long list of people Wally can brag about meeting, including but not limiting to the entire Justice League. His current life now is absolutely perfect and it’s so easy to pretend that there aren’t jagged broken pieces from before.  
  
But he has to try to and fix it.  
  
“Where are we going Wally?” Barry asks him.  
  
They stand outside of a room and Wally is frozen in the spot. The doorknob seems miles ahead of him and Wally isn’t sure he has the strength to open the door. But it’s Uncle Barry and maybe, just maybe, Flash can set it right. Wally hopes and prays.  
  
So Wally opens the door and steps inside. There’s a girl the same age as him with green eyes far brighter then Wally’s could ever be. “Hello!” she greets. “I’m Amanda! There are 137 tiles!”  
  
Wally gives her a sad smile and replies, “Hi Amanda. I’m Wally. This is my Uncle Barry.”  
  
Barry waves and smile at her. Amanda smiles back. Then she twirls around and looks up and begins to count the number of tiles there are on the ceiling.  
  
“Wally,” Barry whispers into his favorite nephew’s ears. “What’s going on?”  
  
“Can you fix her?” Wally asks, desperate. Wally hopes and prays because Uncle Barry is a superhero and Wally still knows that superheroes can save the day. Even if the Flash can’t, maybe another superhero can. So Wally hopes and prays.“Wally,” Barry starts softly. He’s interrupted when Amanda stops her counting. Her bright green eyes stare at them without a single sign of recognition. She twirls her long red hair between her petite fingers and bounces over to them.  
  
“Hello! I’m Amanda! There are 137 titles!” she repeats.  
  
“Hi Amanda. I’m Wally,” Wally repeats again.  
  
This time she smiles at them and says, “I’m gonna turn six soon! I wonder when big brother is coming back.” Then she twirls around again before returning to count the tiles on the ceiling.  
  
Barry balks and stares. “She’s stuck,” Wally attempts to explain. He doesn’t understand, even all these years what exactly is wrong. He watches her dance and dance and nothing he does can fix her. She’s so bright like a star in the sky and seeing her like this kills him inside. But Barry can fix her right? Wally clings to that and hopes and prays.  
  
“I...” Barry begins. He sees the parallels between Wally and Amanda, the same red wild hair, the curve the cheeks and the shapes of the eyes. “I don’t know if I can help her, Wally,” he says as gently as he can. “But... I’ll try and I’ll make some calls okay?”  
  
Wally nods. It’s better than nothing. Wally hopes and prays with all of his heart.  
  
It surprises him when Barry tells him a few months later that there’s nothing he can do. “We can’t save everyone,” he sagely tells him.  
  
Wally nods and doesn’t cry. (Because Brad told him not to but he can’t deny that it hurts.) In the ends he still fails because his first family is still broken. His mother is gone, his father still missing and his sister is still stuck in that endless loop and doesn’t even recognize her brother standing before her.  
  
Everyday Wally ~~believes,~~ ~~hopes~~ and prays.  
  
\---------------  
  
_Where have all the good men gone_ _  
And where are all the gods?_  
  
Wally prays with all of his heart. He prays to God, to Buddha, to magic, to miracles, to anything that is willing to listen. He races as fast as he possibly can. Above him, Robin soars across the sky like the bird he is. Wally wishes they could have met under better circumstances.  
  
It starts off as a simple mission. Uncle Barry brings him to Gotham so he could meet Robin, Batman’s partner. Wally has never been so excited. But like most things in the superhero world things get ugly and fast.  
  
Robin and Wally explore the city and are under orders not to engage any villains. Normally yes they would have listen but then they stumble upon a kidnapping. They stop the criminals but not before they overhear one of them order their partners to kill the twenty seven other kids they had captive.  
  
Wally’s blood runs cold.  
  
Brilliant Robin pieces together the clues and tracks them to a warehouse several miles away. Chest tight in worry, Wally takes off with Robin on his tail.  
  
It’s foolish and reckless and Uncle Barry is going to be so angry later on but Wally will deal with that later. He prays and prays as he skids around the corner. The warehouse is in sight and Wally prays they made it in time. Throwing open the door, Wally takes one look inside and zips away to throw up. Robin isn’t fairing much better but manages to hold his dinner down. They were too late. Inside the warehouse lays twenty seven bodies of children ranging three to ten. Lifeless eyes stare at them, unspoken whispers demanding to know why they didn’t arrive in time.  
  
Wally returns and braves another look inside. At the door is a small girl with a pretty pink dress. Her blond hair is in pigtails and tie with yellow ribbons. Blood still drips from the single bullet hole in her forehead as her brown eyes stares back at him. In her arms is a tiny white stuffed bear that’s turning red from her blood. Wally clenches his fist, imagining her running about playing happily with her stuffed animal and curses the world.  
  
No longer able to bear to look anymore, Wally stumbles backwards before collapsing to his knees in shock. Twenty seven bright lights he couldn’t save and he shouldn’t be this upset. Uncle Barry told him, over and over again that superheroes can’t save everyone and he’s a fool to hope otherwise. He doesn’t cry because Brad told him not to and he doesn’t know why he still believes in miracles and magic when they’ve failed him so many times now. None of this matters because it’s only now that Wally realizes that his mother is wrong. Good doesn’t always win, evil sometimes does. Miracles don’t happen and weak don’t become the strong if they believe just enough because Wally ~~believes~~ , ~~hopes~~ , and ~~prays~~ with all of his heart and nothing good has ever come from it.  
  
He gives a bitter hallow laugh. The world is dark and lonely. “There is no such thing as magic in the world,” Wally tells Robin.  
  
Interestingly, Robin’s shoulders sag and Wally knows that somehow Robin _gets_ it.  
  
“I know.”

 


End file.
